Flashback Friday: Space Jam the Video Game

This is going to be fun...and painful at the same time. Let's talk about one of the first games I ever played on a Playstation system: Space Jam.

What could go wrong?

Why? Well, there seems to be some scuttlebutt going around now that there may indeed be a Space Jam 2 starring LeBron James. While that remains to be seen, it got people.....excited may not be the right word...maybe intrigued?

I was given a Playstation for Christmas LONG ago, and I also was gifted 4 games, this, 2Xtreme, Street Fighter: The Movie (ugh) and Crash Bandicoot. I did not own a Sega Saturn in my life (guess you could say I already had a feel for the video game industry and knew the Saturn wouldn't do well) so the original Playstation was my first taste of 3D graphics. (I got the PSX before I got an N64). Also my first chance to feel load times. Gotta love those.

Graphics....yeah...

So maybe I wasn't as keen on the video game industry as I thought. Guess I hadn't been told yet that games based on movies usually suck. Granted, it was the mid 90's so my 11 year old brain only thought of pro wrestling, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and "give me all the games". Funny, my 28 year old brain is pretty much the same.

So, this game is not very good.

It's real basic 3 on 3 basketball as you take control of either the TuneSquad or the Monstars and play a game of basketball. That's it. No "Story Mode", Online was pretty much nonexistent at this point, and, let's just say, people weren't clamoring to come over to my house to play Space Jam. 

Can't imagine why...

Before the game, you play as Daffy Duck collecting Michael Jordan's uniform while avoiding the family dog. Does it help you in the actual game? No. After the 1st and 3rd quarters you do one of 3 mini games, then at halftime you, as Bugs Bunny, collect water bottles from lockers. It's all dumb, and after a while you're better off just skipping them.

Your reward for winning the game? Probably turning it off.

It's kind of an unwritten rule that video games based on movies always suck. There are a couple exceptions: see this, this, and well, duh! However, this was right in that dark age of movie games. Just get ready for the inevitable Space Jam 2 game.

Though I still have the Space Jam soundtrack, and if you say anything bad about it, we can't be friends.

What's coming up in March 2014?

With February all but over with as far as new releases are concerned, (Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy notwithstanding) let's look forward to March, because now we start getting into some big releases and with GDC happening March 17th, expect more big announcements.

March 4th:
South Park: Stick of Truth: PC, PS3, Xbox 360.
- An Obsidian RPG set in the South Park universe. From what I saw of actual gameplay, it looks JUST like an episode of South Park. They nailed the aesthetic here. Will be interested in seeing the final product.

March 11th
Titanfall: PC, Xbox One
- You have already read my thoughts on the beta, this is the most anticipated game of the year.

Dark Souls II: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
- The official sequel (third overall in the series) promises to bring more death, more teeth-grinding and more "Ah, Shit" moments.

March 14th
Yoshi's New Island: 3DS
- Can't really go wrong here. Expect another cute Yoshi game from Nintendo.

March 18th
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster: PS3. PSVita
- Pretty self explanatory

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- This is the prelude to MGS5: The Phantom Pain. Which means that you have, at least, SOMETHING to hold you over until the game comes out later this year.

March 21st
Infamous: Second Sun: PS4
- The first big release on the PS4 and a MAIN reason why people purchased a PS4. This game looks awesome!

March 25th
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls: PC, Mac
- The first expansion brings a new class, new game mode, more loot!

Titanfall: Xbox 360

TBA March
The Walking Dead: Season 2 - Episode 2: A House Divided: PC, Mac, PS3, PSVita, Xbox 360, iOS

Obviously this is all subject to change and probably will. Also there are other games coming out in March but I think these are the ones I am most interested in, and ones you should be on the lookout for.

What I Think Of.... Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

After spending a good day and a half with EA and PopCap's new Third Person Shooter PvZ: Garden Warfare, I am ready to give an initial reaction to a game many people were looking forward to, but maybe were unsure of what exactly they were getting.

They all look so CUTE!

I of course mean that in the best way possible. People spent DAYS and WEEKS with the original Plants Vs. Zombies and it's available on literally everything ever, probably even that watch phone you bought so you could feel like Dick Tracy. I remember myself spending a lot of time saving my garden from the waves of zombies coming for BRAAAIIIINNNS, and I remember really enjoying it and feeling like PopCap had struck gold again after games like Bejeweled and Peggle. So when I first heard that they were taking a 2D Strategy-style game and turning it into a Third Person Shooter, at first I didn't know what to think, is this gonna work or is this gonna end up feeling like Angry Birds and just cash in on something that works until it gets beaten into the ground?

Feed me Seymour! What? Too obvious?

So this game is purely online. Sure, you can play it by yourself, but it's still on a server. Let me explain: "Garden Ops" is the first mode on the list and it is, essentially, horde mode. Which is to say, they took the concept of PvZ and put it into a shooter. Simple, basic, but still a lot of fun. That can be played with up to 4 players, and if you want to try a difficulty any higher than "easy", I recommend having others help you out. You can play this mode solo if you want, but you are still using a private server. Online only eh? You would have thought EA learned from their earlier attempt with that concept.

Side Note: As far as the servers go, I had little problems getting in to games. There was an hour chunk of the day where I couldn't connect to the EA servers and, therefore, couldn't play the game at all, but they did some server maintenance and it seems to be more stable now.

In the "Garden Ops" mode, you and your team take on waves of zombies trying to destroy your garden. There are 3 spots you can choose from to place your garden and build your defenses around, which seems VERY similar to the Gears of War style Horde mode. Your defenses consist of plants you put in strategic pots around the garden, you collect these defenses by buying "Sticker Packs" from the store (I'll get to that later, if I start going down a different road, I will never get back to where I was).

There are 10 Waves of increasingly difficult zombies, with waves 5 and 10 consisting of a slot machine that determines which zombies and Boss Zombie you will face in that wave. I assume this to actually be random but I have not played enough games of this to say one way or the other. It may be based on difficulty level, but I assume it's random. After the 10th wave, you and your team must get to the extraction point to be rescued while holding off against the enemy. Seems familiar, right?

See what happens when you don't eat your veggies?

The competitive multiplayer seems to be the real meat of the game. 24 players can go online and fight in traditional modes such as "Team Vanquish" (Team Deathmatch) and "Gardens and Graveyards" (Control Points). You have your choice of classes as well. Since this isn't a true "review", I won't get into them all but, as you can imagine, the usual suspects are here: Assault-type, Medic-type, Heavy-type, etc.

The classes of the plants

The action is pretty frantic and I found myself enjoying my time online. It seems like one of those "for-fun" shooters that can give people a break from the Call of Duty, Battlefield style of game. Every game I got into was full of people, though I imagine when Titanfall, is released, that could have an impact on that, though I am sure there will still be plenty of people playing this.

Zombie classes

Throughout your time, you collect coins by killing other player, assisting, destroying barriers, etc. These coins go towards purchasing sticker packs which can unlock various things: Customization options, consumables, pieces to unlock other characters, defenses for "Garden Ops" mode, etc. It all seems really well put together and (at least for right now) is constantly rewarding me.

From my time spent with this game, I feel this is a nice, cute, funny shooter that will hold me over until the big games come out. I will definitely keep playing this and I suggest you do too. The $40 price tag certainly helps.

YouTube video you need to watch:

This guy is so good, I am gonna post a couple videos and just tell you that you need to subscribe to this guy and watch all his videos.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you:

Smooth McGroove:

Behold! The power of the Beard!

This is INCREDIBLE! If that didn't bring a smile to your face then you have no soul!

He has videos from games like Mario World, Final Fantasy, Streets of Rage, etc.

Here are a few more examples of how to be awesome:

The Genesis had some of the best music ever and the Sonic the Hedgehog games really stood out to me. This makes me want to dust off my Genesis and yell obscenities as I run straight into enemies that I don't have the hand-eye coordination anymore to see.

Anybody who owned a Genesis can listen to this one especially and just be taken back to the early 90's

GAH! AMAZING!

You hear that voice (those voices, I guess, since it's all him) and you don't expect to picture the mystery 4th member of the Wyatt Family. Subscribe NOW!

Also, his version of "Guile's Theme" from Street Fighter II  should be listened to every morning before you start your day, you'll have a little extra swag in your step.

Flashback Friday: Steel Battalion

With all this recent mech talk with Titanfall and Hawken and whatnot. I figured I would highlight a mech game of old and a game that was unique in its own right: Steel Battalion.

Rejected Metal Gear design?

Steel Battalion was released for the Xbox on September 12, 2002 (Japan), November 21, 2002 (North America), and March 28, 2003 (Europe).

Here is an old demonstration of this game in action:

Well, there you go. Steel Battalion was a pretty cool game....

What's up? That thing on the left side of the screen? You mean THIS????

Can also make toast!

Yeah! That's the controller you used to play the game. This game told every other mech game to suck it cause they were bringing it!

In the upper right hand corner there is an "eject" button. That's also your lifeline. You don't eject, your game doesn't save. Period. It was THAT kind of game.

Pure and simple: this game was pretty badass and with that controller you felt like you were in this game and about to rip shit up.

So naturally when they decided to make an Xbox 360 Steel Battalion game, gamers knew that this controller was going to be something special, right?...

.

.

.

Wait, what?

Just digest that for a second....you make the Xbox game with the most buttons on it and it's awesome! You make the 360 game....with NO BUTTONS and it's GARBAGE.

Let's just pretend we never saw that...mmk? 

What I Thought Of...the Titanfall Beta

So, I don't know if you heard, but there is this game called Titanfall that's supposed to come to Xbox One and PC March 11th and Xbox 360 shortly thereafter....you have? Oh, well then did you know the open beta happened just recently?....oh...well you're no fun.

Well I got my hands on it and played a good chunk of it, leveled my guy up to the level 14 max cap and here are my takeaways from 2014's first hotly anticipated game.

I wonder if it's bigger on the inside

Let's start with the positives, since I always like to start off strong:

- 60 frames per second. This is a big deal. I did notice a few drops when the shit hit the fan, but overall I was impressed with how it held together.

- When you are in a Titan, you feel like a badass. You can take down guys who are on foot in one well-placed shot, or just squash the puny bugs under your foot.

- When you are on foot, you can be a badass. Your anti-titan weapon is super-effective (sings PO-KE-MON) and it is beyond satisfying to jump on an enemy titan, rip off his protective covering and unload rounds until he blows up.

which can lead to...

- Nuclear Ejection! Besides being a sweet death metal band name, it's the best perk I have ever experienced. When your Titan goes into a "Doomed" state, you eject, fly up in the air and look down as your Titan becomes a FREAKING ATOMIC BOMB! I killed many an enemy with this and if the Video Game Gods are real, this makes it into the final game. Also, anyone interested in starting a death metal band?

- Traversing the levels feels fluid. When I say fluid, I mean it's the best movement flow in a First Person Shooter I have played since Brink (yeah I played that, the movement was a strong point, the rest...well...).

- It's a nice change of pace from the Battlefield and Call of Duty type game. Titanfall is like no other game out there right now. Many have tried mech battles (Mechwarrior, MechAssault and Hawken being a few that I think do it well. Especially Hawken, man I wanna play more of that).

There are a couple more positives that I took away from it, but others have a differing opinion, so I will cover those later.

I had very few negatives, because I knew this was a beta and not totally indicative of the final version. Much like a first date, there are bound to be some miscues that you hope won't affect the chances of hearing from that person again. Is the 3 day rule real?....meh, I digress.

- I don't see many of the "Burn Cards" being that useful. A "Burn Card" is earned throughout the match for doing specific things, killing grunts, winning a match, completing challenges, etc. You use these cards for a one-time boost, and I mean ONE TIME. As in; you die, that card is spent and gone. I collected A LOT over my playtime and found I barely used them. The only ones I would use were the ones that take 40 - 80 seconds off the next Titanfall. The rest were one-time weapon upgrades and passive abilities that I didn't really care for. It's a neat idea that I guess I just don't get. Like this. Though this seems like it speaks to me.

- The game really didn't look "next-gen". Again, I get it, it's a beta and if the game needed to dial back a few textures just to run at 60fps, then you can keep your textures and I will take all the frames, to go please, I have lot's of shooting and explosion-ing to do. I guess the real bummer will come in if it looks the same on all 3 platforms. It's one thing if the Xbox One version looks like the PC version (in fact, I am pretty sure that's the point) but if the Xbox 360 one looks similar if not identical, then that would be cause for questioning.

Ok, so now let's talk about 2 things that I found myself in a debate over. (1) Hockey is the greatest sport ever, just get over it, I'm right. (2) The upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie might ACTUALLY be good. (Please, please, please....don't do this to me again Megan Fox).

What...? Oh Titanfall...

BOOM goes the Titan-mite!......Dyna-fall? Screw it.

- The inclusion of "grunts" to "fill out" the map. Why not drop them and add more players?
Well, self, I feel like the 6 vs 6 format works well because if you had more than that, it can become utter chaos that the game (or your history with epilepsy) may not be able to handle. Plus it's what I call the "New Player Factor". My NPF here is that the n00b wants to come in and start feeling like he's contributing, doing well, and won't get kicked by douchbags, basically the anti-Dota. If you kill a grunt, you help your team in some way and you get the satisfaction of a kill. Battlefield games had a great NPF with awarding XP for doing, well basically anything. I feel Titanfall is action packed enough as it is and putting fodder out there to add an extra layer and a NPF can only help the game,

- What is this "Epilogue" bullshit? The kills don't even count!
Getting a little feisty now, aren't we? The Epilogue would be after a winner has won the match and the losing team has a chance to escape on an extraction shuttle while the winning team tries to stop them from said escape. You die and your game is over, no respawns in the Epilogue and no, the kills don't count, this is purely for extra XP and extra satisfaction. Why do we live our gaming life by our Kill/Death ratio? You don't see this in any other game. Heaven forbid a game tries something different and actually is rewarding. It's the equivalent of rubbing it in the losers face or getting some dignity back while earning extra XP to level up.This is a neat idea that I actually get like this.

All in all I had a lot of fun with the Titanfall beta. The game was action-packed, unique, flashy, satisfying, and I felt like a badass. I can't say that too often. This is unlike any other game out there and well worth picking up when it's released on March 11th (Xbox One and PC with Xbox 360 to follow shortly thereafter).

It's a-me, the first a-post! Wahoo!

So I was racking my brain as to what I should write the first post about, the recent Titanfall Beta? The hours I have spent playing Assassin's Creed IV recently? The fact that I bought Strider for both PS4 and Xbox One just so I can get trophies and achievements AND cause I am dying to play things on both consoles? (Yeah, that's what it has come to),

Nope, I decided the first article I write should be about the first big game that I (and I am sure BILLIONS of people) played. Super Mario Bros. for the NES.

(Yes I did play PONG before the first Mario Bros. but I feel I can write more about Italian Plumbers on a quest to save a princess than I could about 2 big rectangles bouncing a white square back and forth for all eternity).

Behold! My gateway drug to the world of video games.

Not only did this introduce us to the most recognizable characters in video game history, this cartridge also showed us how a controller wasn't the only way to play a game. Duck Hunt came with the NES light gun and World Class Track and Field gave us the Power Pad and believe me, there will be future posts about both those things.

Some quick facts about SMB:

- Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985. (hey that's a fantastic year, since it gave the world Mario Bros, a very handsome blogger, and this)

- Shigeru Miyamoto was said to have thought of the idea for the game during a train ride where he watched the horizon "scroll by" and imagined a person jumping over the hills. You know, the man is a genius and I would love to just look out a window and think of a best-selling game like that...

(runs to window) It's cold, snow everywhere, and everyone is miserable. That can't make for a very interesting game. Can it? Guess so.

- SMB has one of the most famous (or infamous) glitches in video game history with the "Minus World". Where you pass through bricks at the end of stage 1-2 to magically be taken to "World  -1". It is identical to World 2-2 but underwater, and when you finish, it takes you back to the beginning of the level. You play the same thing until you lose all your extra lives.

See that? You do the same thing over and over again in an endless loop until you just die, or what Call of Duty players call:, "Prestiging".

The way you access purgatory.

The basis of the game is simple: run right for 8 worlds, stepping on and murdering whatever gets in your way to save a princess who probably didn't tell you she was going out and didn't bother to tell you which damn castle she is in. At least give us a hint, like a landmark or something, cause there are a lot of fucking castles that look identical around here and I am risking the lives of myself and my twin brother Luigi. We were playing a nice game of tennis and all of a sudden I hear "Save me, Mario". (breaks brick with fist, coin pops out) Well I feel better, and now have some money on the side.

I gotta do what for this bitch?

I wanna come back to a point here. Mario murders anything that walks in his path. Goombas (I don't know what a Goomba is but I knew as a kid to "KILL IT") were just walking to the left, minding their own business, probably just doing their job as "Professional Left Walker" and they get KILLED!

Mario then unleashes his inner Shredder and decides he wants to kill turtles as well, then fling their corpses at other things to kill them. Feels like I am playing Nightmare on Mushroom Kingdom Street.

Course, he could be imagining all this since he is eating mushrooms and flowers and spitting hot fire.

But there is one enemy who deserved the most untimely demise of all:

This fucker!

That's fine, just throw your garbage anywhere you see OH MY GOD THEY ARE MOVING!

Seriously, the Lakitu throws his shit on you, then the shit comes alive and tries to kill you and you can't do a damn thing about it. Even if you somehow manage to "kill" the Lakitu, he comes right back a few seconds later. Think of him as 8-bit Jason. Actually, the Lakitu is way scarier.

I could go on and on about this game, but it's stuff you already know. The characters in the Mario universe are, well, universally known. They help keep Nintendo alive in today's world just as they did back then. You have played a Mario game in your life and they are enjoyable, simple, and fun.

At least the princess will learn her lesson and not get kidnapped anymore.....right?

Complete reboot incoming....

So after years of collecting dust, I have taken the blog cartridge out, blown on it, wiped it down with rubbing alcohol, placed it in oh so carefully and said "c'mon" about 15 times and BOOM!

Expect regular updates including:

- "What I Thought Of...": My initial reaction to a game I played.

- "Flashback Friday" : A look back at games that deserve their time to shine

- "Random YouTube Video" : Pretty self-explanatory

And so on...

Also I will be doing regular Twitch streams (found here) and looking into best ways to post quality content on YouTube (by "quality" I mean "Whatever I damn well please cause it's my show so there").

Would you kindly join me on this ride?

- Jeff